Justice for
Jonathan Pollard 
The official Website authorized by
Jonathan & Esther Pollard
Jonathan & Esther Pollard
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/
Saturday, December 1, 2012
O thank God as a Christian I am sick of feeling alone when they call Christians terrorists! Atheist are always demanding they are the only ones who have rights anyway! Isn't that what the terrorist do? Just sayin???
Virginia official labels atheists as 'fanatical terrorists'
Over the years, the courthouse decorated its facility by hanging a Skeleton Santa Claus from a cross and featuring paintings that show the manger birth of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as well as the traditional birth of Jesus. The lawn this year also contained a Christmas tree and a menorah. Such decorations have been displayed at the courthouse every year since 2009, when the Loudon County Board of Supervisors lifted a ban on courthouse holiday displays, allowing any religious group to contribute decorations.
But this year, the board banned unattended displays by outside groups and instead put up its own decorations. This winter the American Atheists also planned to contribute attended displays, but AA leader Rick Wingrove believes his group was denied the same amount of access to the grounds.
“The board made it really onerous for everyone but religious groups to put up displays. We will not have the exposure as in the past,” he told the Times.
Wingrove also told NBC4 that the Board of Supervisors seemed to favor Christian groups and made it more difficult for other groups to access the lawn.
Angered by the perceived bias against them, the atheist group emphasized the importance of separating church and state. The atheist reaction triggered a hostile response from Reid, who is now under scrutiny for calling them “fanatic terrorists.”
“None of the religious organizations in the county have had any problem with what we’re doing,” he told the Times. “It’s strictly this group of terrorists. They’re fanatics who basically want to stamp out religion in all public life and property.”
Reid also accused the Atheists of destroying holidays.
“[This is] another example of putting fingers in the eyes of shoppers and businesses and trying to make a mockery of Christmas holidays – that’s what they’re really about. They’re hell bent on trying to destroy people’s holidays,” he said.
Reid’s offensive remarks were quickly condemned by other Loudon County officials, prompting an apology from the Leesburg supervisor.
“We have to be very sensitive here in Leesburg to tossing around works like ‘terrorism’ when there are neighbors who have actually held themselves against the terrorists in the line of battle,” Loudon County Democratic Committee Chair Evan Macbeth told NBC4.
French officials condemn a shocking message on a three-year-old’s shirt
‘My name is Jihad and I am a bomb’
A French woman is slated to face charges of “apologie de crime,” which can be translated as advocating violence, after sending her 3-year-old son, Jihad, to kindergarten dressed in a T-shirt bearing the inscriptions “I am a bomb” on the front and “Jihad. Born September 11″ on the back.
The incident took place on September 25 in the town of Sorgues, in the district of Avignon, southern France. The divorced woman’s brother, who allegedly supplied the offensive shirt, was set to face charges together with his sister. According to the French daily Le Figaro, the two were remanded in custody awaiting their trial, which was set for December 19.
According to reports, when the kindergarten teacher noticed the message on the clothing, she gave the child another shirt to put atop the offensive garment, and notified the authorities.
Local officials confirmed the child’s identity and date of birth.
According to the Avignon prosecutor Bernard Marchal, the mother “was very surprised by the reaction” to the incident, which she called a “provocation,” and said she did not expect the case would “assume such proportions.” He noted that neither the child’s mother nor his uncle were identified as radical Islamists.
Sorgues mayor Thierry Lagneau condemned the incident as “incitement to hatred and terrorism.”
According to JTA, there has been a 45 percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks in France in 2012 compared to last year.
‘War on Jesus’? U.S. Colleges Have ‘Outright Disregard & Disdain for Jesus Christ,’ Report Claims
The College Fix, a conservative web site devoted to higher education news, has published a report that will surely capture the faithful’s attention. According to the outlet’s recent survey of religious education classes across America, colleges and universities show “an outright disregard and disdain for Jesus Christ.”
In total, 316 courses at 12 universities were examined. Analysis shows what The College Fix claims is evidence that U.S. professors regularly snub Jesus and gloss over his messaging. Rather than focusing on Christ, the web site contends that educators focus on offering electives that tackle “more obscure matters.” Here’s how an article introducing the report frames these issues:
The survey looked at class titles and descriptions categorized either directly under religious studies, or courses heavy with religious topics but filed under departments such as history, the humanities, political science or philosophy. [...]Some of the electives are too difficult to even classify, such as: emergence, from biology to religion; suffering and transformation; anthropology of body and pain; religious dimensions in human experience; sport and spirituality; and a history of apocalyptic thought and movements.
HOW MUCH MORE SOCIALIST CAN THIS BE? Atheist are worse than winey terrible two TODDLERS! Grow up you bunch of complainers!
Gov’t Gives PA Restaurant a Choice: Give 10% Sunday Church Bulletin Discount to Atheists Too or Discontinue it Entirely!
To continue offering its discount, Prudhomme’s Lost Cajun Kitchen must now honor literature that comes from any religious institution, The Christian Post reports. This includes secular bulletins from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist activist non-profit, and faith-based documents pertaining to Judaism, Islam and other religions on Sundays.
A one-line statement from the state human relations commission summarized these ideals: ”Respondent will continue to give a discount for any bulletin from any group oriented around the subject of religious faith, including publications from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, as long as they maintain the Sunday discount program.”
The ruling gave victory to Wolff, who argued that he was being discriminated against since he does not attend church. Shannon Powers, a spokesperson for PHRC, told the York Daily Record that the restaurant merely needs to remove the word “church” from the discount to comply with the new mandate.
“This simple language change was our recommendation from the beginning and was refused by Prudhomme’s,” Powers said.
The government representative made it clear, though, that the restaurant lost its battle and that Wolff’s religious complaint was upheld.
School Forces Child to Remove ‘God’ From Veteran’s Day Poem: ‘Separation of Church & State’
THE WICKED WORLD IS REMOVING GOD FROM EVERYTHING
West Marion Elementary School in Marion, North Carolina, is at the center of controversy after educators ordered a six-year-old girl to remove the word “God” from a poem she was slated to deliver at a Veteran’s Day event. The first grader intended to use the opportunity to honor her two grandfathers who fought during the Vietnam War.
The contentious line that led the school to take action was, “He prayed to God for peace, he prayed to God for strength” — clearly a reference to her relatives’ personal, wartime invocations. After a parent allegedly heard of the inclusion of a higher power, he or she complained. The school, apparently working diligently to balance church versus state concerns, then decided to tell the child to remove the line.
“The discussion [about the poem] occurred between myself, the principal and the assistant principal at West Marion,” Superintendent Gerri Martin told McDowell News. “We wanted to make sure we were upholding the school district’s responsibility of separation of church and state from the Establishment Clause.”
After consulting and considering the law, the school decided that allowing the line would constitute an endorsement of “one single religion over another.” Some in the Marion community, though, are concerned that the young girl’s First Amendment rights were violated when she was told that she could not utter God’s name during the Nov. 8 event.
One district employee, Chris Greene, spoke out at a Board of Education meeting this week, explaining that the school was guilty of “hushing the voice of a six-year-old girl.” He contended that she was not trying to pray or coerce others to engage in a conversation with God, but that the first grader was simply explaining what her grandfathers had done in their time of need.
“She was told that she was not allowed to say the word God during this program,” Greene said. “Being a six year old, and not knowing her rights, she did what she was told.”
But not everyone agrees, as Greene does, that an apology to the young girl is warranted. In an interview with McDowell News, Ken Paulson, president and chief executive of the First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C., said that the school was within its rights to remove “God” from the poem.
“Courts have consistently held up the rights for students to express themselves unless their speech is disruptive to the school,” Paulson maintains. “The First Amendment protects all Americans. She had every right to mention God, [but] that dynamic changed when they asked her to read it at an assembly.”
Because the event was planned and not spontaneous, Paulson said that the school could have potentially run into church versus state trouble. The audience was “captive” in that it had nowhere to go if members did not want to hear “God” be mentioned. In the end, he agreed with the school’s assessment and actions (so far, the girl’s family has been silent about the matter).
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section, below.
BREAKING!
Conflicting media reports coming from Gaza suggest an Israeli strike has hit a residential area, wounding four Palestinians. But others stress it was an industrial accident.
This comes amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Gaza.
Gaza-based filmmaker and activist Harry Fear told RT that four Palestinians have been injured in the incident – two of them critically injured with one being announced 'clinically dead' at Shifa Hospital.
The incident in East Deir Al-Balah occurred around 22:00 GMT. Reports from local media suggest it was a tank shelling attack. So far there has been no reaction from Hamas.
However other reports suggest it could be an industrial incident.
Relations between Israel and Gaza currently stand on a knife-edge more than a week after the cessation of violence between the two sides. Israel’s eight-day Pillar of Defense campaign in Gaza killed some 169 Palestinians, while Gazan rocket fire left six Israelis dead.
Yes, I would like to report that satan has been unleashed and what is the Catholic Church gonna do about it?
RIDICULOUS!
Catholic Church sets up exorcist hotline: 'Real diabolical phenomena very rare'
Monsignor Angelo Mascheroni, the diocese’s chief exorcist of 17 years, told the incrocinews Italian website he has met an exorcist who set a record of seeing 120 people a day.
“He was only able to offer a blessing, to cheer people up. It's not enough. One should take between two to four appointments a day, no more. Otherwise it’s too much,” he noted.
The Monsignorwarned those who prefer magicians to priests in emergency cases.
"Magicians will charge you, but we devote our time, listening, giving blessings … everything for free – it couldn't be other way. And we do not limit ourselves to 10 minutes of meeting, but give as much is needed," Monsignor Mascheroni added.
He said among those who turn to exorcists are "young and old, men and women, people of different cultural levels, from fifth grade pupils to graduation students."
"Usually the parents call, worried about their kids, saying that the child doesn't go to school, takes drugs or rebels against something … In reality, it's not a demon, but when you're 18 years old, you don't want any restrictions. It is therefore important to tell one situation from another well," the Monsignor told the incrocinews website.
"Real diabolical phenomena [cases], at least in my experience, are very rare," he added.
"I always ask if before calling an exorcist they saw magicians…Wonder if they went to specialists, because sometimes they are mental phenomena, mental and psychiatric disorders," he concluded.
NOW ITS PROBABLY A RUMOR BUT IT WOULD BE SWEET JUSTICE AFTER WHAT HE DID TO ANN CURRY!
NBC News Denies Report Matt Lauer Could Be Fired Over 'Today' Ratings
NBC News found itself shooting down yet another rumor about "Today" on Friday.
Radar reported that Alexandra Wallace, the newly installed executive overseeing the troubled morning show, had informed her bosses that she might have to fire Matt Lauer if ratings for the show continue to lag behind "Good Morning America." It was not a report that made much sense -- Lauer was just signed to an extremely lucrative new contract earlier in the year -- but Wallace spoke on the record to the New York Post to rebuff it.
"There is absolutely no truth to this," she said. "There have been some recent outrageous claims regarding Matt and the 'Today' show, and an awful lot of piling on from nameless, faceless sources. These stories are wrong and irresponsible."
The show has defended itself on the record several times before. Lauer hit back at critical pieces in the Post and Daily News in September, and several NBC executives, including NBC News president Steve Capus, have backed him in interviews. Capus also lashed out at the tabloid stories, telling the Daily Beast --in an oddly similar statement as Wallace's -- that "there has also been a lot of mean-spirited piling-on, which has been manufactured by many anonymous sources."
BREAKING! BREAKING! BREAKING!
Israel strikes Gaza violating ceasefire - reports
The attack in East Deir Al-Balah occurred around 22:00 GMT. Reports from local media suggest it was a tank shelling attack. So far there has been no reaction from Hamas.
The shelling is the first such incident since the Egypt-brokered ceasefire ended violent conflict between Israel and Gaza on November 21.
Syria crisis: Damascus internet back after blackout!
Internet services around Damascus
have resumed after a two-day blackout, as violence intensifies.
While Syria's capital seemed to be back online, it was not clear how much
internet access there was elsewhere.
Activists report continued bombardment of eastern suburbs of the capital
which have been the focus of a fierce government offensive in recent days.
The government says the city's airport has reopened but there are still
reports of fighting in the area.
Many flights in and out of Damascus were cancelled on Thursday and Friday
after heavy fighting on the main road to the airport, which is the country's
busiest.
The BBC's Lina Sinjab, who is in the capital, says helicopter gunships and
MiG warplanes can be heard overhead, reportedly bombarding rebel-held
areas.
Clouds of smoke
The communications black-out made it hard to establish what was happening on
the ground across the country, and even in other neighbourhoods of Damascus.
The only information people had been getting was the
sight of clouds of smoke and the non-stop sound of fighter jets, military
helicopters and explosions, indicating how heavy the fighting continues to be in
the south-eastern area of the city leading to the airport, our correspondent
says.
The US State Department says the Syrian government cut communications in a
sign of its desperation.
The UN Secretary General has decried the worsening humanitarian situation in
Syria, saying civilians were being massacred almost daily across the country
while wide-scale human-rights violations were being committed by both sides.
Ban Ki-moon warned the UN General Assembly in New York that Syrian refugee
numbers could swell to 700,000 by January.
He predicted that up to four million people would be in need of assistance
during the winter as a consequence of ever more brutal violence.
His words were echoed by the UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi,
who told the New York gathering that Syria would become a failed state unless a
negotiated political solution to the conflict could be found.
Only the UN Security Council could put together a viable peace plan, he
emphasised.
Meanwhile, Turkey's foreign minister says the Syrian regime has degenerated
into an "armed militia" that resorts to brutality in its desperate attempt to
stay in power.
Ahmet Davutoglu was speaking on Saturday at an Istanbul meeting of Arab
foreign ministers who have expressed opposition to the Syrian government.
Activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed since the uprising
against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
BREAKING! (EGYPT)
Egypt to hold December referendum on new constitution
President Mohammed Morsi has called for Egypt's new draft
constitution to be put to a referendum on 15 December.
RICE IS QUITE THE UNDERCOVER CRIMINAL!
Rice has investments in bank defrauded by Madoff, in Irish pharmaceuticals, in firm located in Bermuda
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Rice has assets between $23.5 million and $43.5 million. The nonpartisan group named her the wealthiest member of the executive branch in 2009.
As first reported by the Free Beacon, Rice’s portfolio includes investments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in several energy companies known for doing business with Iran.
A Washington Free Beacon analysis of her personal financial disclosure statement shows additional controversial foreign investments.
Among the foreign entities in which Rice holds assets is Banco Santander. Santander and its investors lost more than $3.2 billion as a result of Bernie Madoff’s fraudulent Ponzi scheme. It is believed that Santander was aware of the fraudulent nature of Madoff’s scheme and continued to increase its investments anyway. A federal judge ruled that Santander could not be sued under U.S. securities law because, while the suit was filed in the U.S., the fraudulent acts were more readily apparent in Europe.
Rice also has investments in Shire PLC, an Irish bio-pharmaceutical company. Shire was the third largest pharmaceutical company in the United Kingdom before it decided to bolt from the country for a tax break. The company in 2008 became a tax resident of Ireland in order to reduce its payment on $2.1 billion of largely international sales.
Another of Rice’s investments, Marvell Technology Group, is a semiconductor provider headquartered in tax haven Bermuda. The Obama campaign was quick to take aim at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for holding assets in Bermuda-based companies. Rice made three purchases of Marvell between May 5, 2011 and September 15, 2011. On October 14 of that year, Rice sold up to $50,000 worth of Marvell stock. Rice’s current position in Marvell Technology is unclear.
Obama’s opening bid in negotiations proposes to eliminate the statutory requirement that CONGRESS approve increases in the federal government’s borrowing authority.
PHAROAH OBAMA IS UNINTERESTED IN RESOLVING THIS PROBEM IN AMERICA, BUT HE IS VERY INTERESTED IN HAVING COMPLTE POWER OVER IT!
Obama's opening bid is not that of a concerned President interested in reducing the deficit
GOP leaders roundly rejected the offer, which reportedly included $1.6 trillion in tax increases, $50 billion in new stimulus spending, and a major mortgage refinancing proposal (cost unspecified). The proposal would also eliminate the statutory requirement that Congress approve increases in the federal government’s borrowing authority.
The White House did not offer any concrete commitments on spending cuts or entitlement reform.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said he “burst into laughter” when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner outlined the proposal at a meeting with GOP leaders on Capitol Hill. He called the plan “almost comical.”
Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer called it an “insulting deal.”
“Robert E. Lee was offered easier terms at Appomattox,” he said on Fox News. “Not only are there no cuts in this [proposal], there’s an increase in spending with a new stimulus. I mean, this is almost unheard of.”
The White House proposal was adopted from the president’s most recent budget proposal, which did not receive a single Democratic vote in either chamber of Congress.
Independent analysts panned Obama’s budget for its reliance on phantom spending cuts and for failing to adequately address the burgeoning national debt.
On top of the $50 billion in stimulus spending, the White House also proposed tax and spending measures, such as an extension of unemployment insurance ($30 billion), that total more than $400 billion. The $1.2 trillion (over 10 years) in automatic spending cuts scheduled to take effect at the end of the year would be deferred for one more year.
House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) offered a pessimistic take on Friday and told reporters the president’s offer “wasn’t a serious one.”
“There’s a stalemate,” he said. “Let’s not kid ourselves. Right now we’re almost nowhere.”
Following his meeting with Geithner on Thursday, Boehner warned: “There is a real danger of going off the fiscal cliff.”
“Appalling,” one GOP aide said of the White House offer. “If I were Boehner, I’d be pretty pissed off. It’s definitely a wake up call.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel wrote that the president’s proposal is a telling example of why Obama deserves his reputation “as the modern president least able to forge a consensus.”
It is not the first time the president has demanded stimulus spending in budget negotiations. However, the $1.6 trillion in new taxes is roughly twice the amount discussed in previous talks with Congressional Republicans.
Though GOP leaders acknowledge that their political leverage is somewhat diminished following the president’s reelection, they are unwilling to agree to what one aide described as an “unconditional surrender” on taxes.
The two parties remain deadlocked over the fate of the Bush-era tax rates for high-income families and small businesses. Republicans have agreed to offer new revenue by capping or eliminating deductions for wealthy earners, but most are opposed to higher rates.
After initially hedging on the issue, Obama now insists “there can be no deal without rates on top earners going up,” in the words of White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
The president has repeatedly called on House Republicans to pass a permanent extension of the Bush-era tax rates on incomes below $200,000 and has sought to redeploy his extension campaign operation to rally support for his position.
Speaking to crowd in Hatfield, Pa., on Friday, Obama accused Republicans of holding “middle-class tax cuts hostage.”
“If Congress does nothing, every family in America will see their income taxes automatically go up on January 1st,” he said. “That’s sort of like the lump of coal you get for Christmas. That’s a Scrooge Christmas.”
The House has already passed a bill extending all of the Bush rates but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has made clear he does not intend to bring it up in the Senate.
Democrats are increasingly confident that House Republicans will cave.
Republicans are willing to offer more tax revenue as part of a deal if Democrats agree to meaningful changes to entitlement programs such as Medicare, which is the primary driver of the national debt.
Some GOP lawmakers such as Rep. Tom Cole (R., Okla.) have suggested that Republicans should simply give the president what he wants.
“I think we ought to take the 98 percent deal right now,” Cole said of extending the Bush-era tax rates except for those on high incomes. “It doesn’t mean I agree with raising the top two. I don’t.”
Cole and others have argued that Obama’s greatest leverage lies in his ability to blame Republicans for the tax increase every American will face if all the Bush rates are allowed to expire.
“If Rs are smart and take tax issue off the table, focus will shift to D refusal to cut spending,” former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer wrote on Twitter.
The editors of National Review argued, “It would be better to pass legislation extending the middle-class tax cuts and to allow the top rates to rise as scheduled” than to accept the latest offer from the White House.
A House leadership aide dismissed Cole’s proposal as “one guy’s idea” that members would not support.
However, aides do concede privately that for Democrats to be insisting on a permanent extension of nearly all of the Bush-era tax rates is a long-term victory for Republicans.
“Looks like Pres George W. Bush is a winner of fiscal cliff deal,” tweeted Brad Dayspring, former communications director for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. “AT LEAST 98% of one of his signature laws preserved by Dem President.”
Still, a number of influential conservatives are suggesting Republicans might be better off “going over the fiscal cliff,” and are challenging the conventional wisdom that Obama would claim the political high ground in such a scenario.
“He’s going to have a recession, nine percent unemployment, two million more unemployed, and a second term that’s going to be a ruin,” Krauthammer said. “That is not a good proposition if you are Barack Obama.”
Keith Hennessey, a former director of the National Economic Council under George W. Bush, wrote that Obama’s threats to veto extension of the rates on high earners is a bluff.
“President Obama’s veto threat decision is not just about fiscal policy, and it’s not just about who gets blamed for a legislative failure,” Hennessey wrote. “It’s about whether the President wants to cause a recession in 2013 and hamstring his second term. No matter what he or his advisors say, he cannot afford to take that risk.”
The president has just as much of an incentive to avoid the fiscal cliff as Republicans do, the House leadership aide told the Washington Free Beacon.
“The part that most people are missing here is that the president doesn’t want to have a destroyed economy on his hands in January,” the aide said. “He doesn’t want a second recession. He’s got Democrats like [Sen.] Patty Murray saying, ‘Let’s go over the cliff.’ He’s got to worry about keeping his own party in line.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) recently said that extending all of the current tax rates would be “a worse idea” than raising taxes on every income level.
Some Republicans fear they are playing into the president’s hands by continuing to negotiate a deal behind closed doors as opposed to in public via congressional committees, where Democrats would be forced to take positions on a host of taxation and spending issues.
“Secret negotiations are a terrible practice,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.). “I don’t know what the Democrats’ plan is. The American people deserve to know.”
Another GOP Senator, who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon on background, was even more blunt.
“The White House is playing Republicans like a fiddle,” he said.
This to me seems like this town is being st up for POSSIBLE CIVIL UNREST! What do you think?
Lock your doors and load your guns: San Bernardino warned of uncontrollable crime as police squad shrinks
City officials prepared a budget plan earlier this month that would attempt to tackle the $45.8 million deficit partially by cutting benefits for city workers like firefighters and police officers, as well as eliminating 80 cops from the force altogether.
“Let’s be honest, we don’t have enough police officers. We have too many criminals living in this city. We have had 45 murders this year… that’s far too high for a city of this size,” Penman said.
The cuts will leave the city with just over 200 sworn officers – a small number in a city of 213,012 that is plagued with crime. The city’s police department has also cut down on the number of people answering its emergency phone lines: problematic in a city that was ranked America’s sixteenth most dangerous in 2004. San Bernardino has also seen a 50 percent increase in murders this year compared to 2011, and this week’s council meeting was actually called in response to the brutal murder of a 76-year-old woman in a neighborhood that is usually quiet.
During the meeting, Police Chief Robert Handy also emphasized the need to reduce the city’s drug problems and theft. But in a region where prisons are already overcrowded and the streets are overwhelmed with gang violence, San Bernardino faces heavy obstacles.
“We are trying to refocus and pay a little more attention to those (types of crimes) because honestly, those are the ones we get complaints on,” Handy said, reports the local Sun newspaper. “We may not come out immediately, but many of those transients have been arrested more than 50 times. There’s no room for them in jail.”
With an inadequate police force, no room in prison, and no money to gather resources, Penman believes city residents must fend for themselves.
“People have asked me what should we do? Go home, lock your doors, and load your gun,” he told the crowd of nearly 150 people at the city council meeting.
San Bernardino filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 1 after acquiring more than $1 billion in debt. The city was the third in California to go bankrupt in just over a month.
In the mid-2000’s, San Bernardino took out $190 million in bonds and loans to finance city construction, but budget problems arose after the 2007 housing crisis. Before it declared bankruptcy, 75 percent of San Bernardino’s budget had gone to public safety agencies to tackle crime.
Penman has come under scrutiny for encouraging residents to stock up on firearms, but City Councilwoman Wendy McCommack further explained the statement to CBS News.
“We need to take our streets back, we need to take our neighborhoods back and we need to protect our homes, and that’s what I think Jim was trying to say,” she said.
US Senate set to ban deals with Russian arms exporter over Syria
The US Senate has approved a measure to prohibit the Pentagon from purchasing from Russia’s main arms exporter Rosoboronexport. The US’s stance that the company is supplying Syria with weapons was the reason for its decision.
Yet the amendment clearly states that the ban can be overturned if “the Secretary of Defense determines that such a waiver is in the national security interests of the United States with respect to the capacity of the Afghan National Security Forces.”
In the past, the US has purchased helicopters from Rosoboronexport for the Afghan security forces, as part of a $367.5 million deal with the US signed in May 2011 for the delivery of 21 Mi-17s helicopters.
Rosoboronexport manages most of Russia’s weapons sales by cooperating with more than 60 countries and accounts for more than 90 per cent of annual arms sales.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the project to purchase helicopters from Rosoboronexport has always been a positive one and Russia“does not wish to see this collaboration damaged as a result of ill-conceived decisions and a bad state of mind of US Senators.”
The amendment needs to be approved by the Congress. The entire National Defense Authorization Act will need to be signed by the US President Barack Obama, but he threatened to veto it for reasons unrelated to the Russian export firm, Foreign Policy reported.
US Senators argued that Russia has supplied more than $1 billion worth of arms to the Syrian government since the unrest in Syria began in March 2011.
Russia has maintained its stance that it only supplied weapons to Syria strictly based on the existing agreements and solely for defense purposes in an event of an attack from external forces.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov clarified Russia’s supply of arms to Syria back in July. He stated that Russia is complying with international law and is merely fulfilling previous contractual obligations with Syria related to air-defense systems signed in 2008.
“We are sending no battleships to Syria. We have been saying publicly that we have been implementing contracts under which we have to supply arms to Syria. Those armaments are entirely defensive and they mostly consist of air defense systems, which cannot be used against the population and can only be used to respond to outside aggression,” Lavrov told RT.
Russia supplies Syria "only with something that Syria would need in the event of an armed attack on it from outside," the minister added. "We don't supply Syria or anyone else with things that are used to fight against peaceful demonstrators, unlike the United States, which regularly supplies that region with such special equipment,” he said
The General Director Sergey Chemezov of Rosoboronexport confirmed that Russia will fully honor its obligations before Syria unless there are international sanctions imposed on Moscow by the UN.
“There are no sanctions whatsoever regarding Syria. If international sanctions are imposed by the UN Security Council, everything will change. And if there are no sanctions, why should we refuse to cooperate with this country? This is business after all,” Chemezov told Interfax.
Fulfilling all earlier signed contracts is a “litmus test” for other nations interested in purchasing Russian weapons that demonstrates that Russia is a stable and predictable partner, he added.
Previously, the US halted deals with Rosoboronexport from 2006 to 2010 because of concerns that the company was selling arms to Iran. The ban was lifted in 2010 after Russia backed UN’s Security Council sanctions on Iran.
Merkel reaffirms support for Israel after U.N. vote!
(Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel reassured Israel of her country's support on
Saturday, two days after Berlin disappointed the Jewish state by abstaining in a
U.N. vote on the Palestinians' status.
O MY GOODNESS! Why does it seem ALL people want to go to war!
North Korea plans second rocket launch in December
(Reuters) - North Korea is to carry out its second
rocket launch this year in December as South Korea holds its presidential
election in a move that will likely trigger diplomatic tensions between the two
Koreas and censure from the United States and Japan.
State news agency KCNA said on Saturday that the launch of a rocket carrying
a satellite would take place between December 10 and December 22.
North Korea says its
launches are for peaceful purposes, although Washington and Seoul believe the
isolated, impoverished state is testing long-range missile technology with the
aim of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a
nuclear warhead.
North Korea undertook a similar launch in April that was aborted a few
minutes into its mission. The North is banned from conducting missile or
nuclear-related activities under United Nations resolutions.
The coming launch will take place around the time of South Korea's
presidential polls on December 19 and close to the first anniversary of the
death of former leader Kim Jong-il.
Kim died on December 17 last year and was succeeded by his son, Kim
Jong-un.
(Reporting by David Chance and John Ruwitch; Editing by Ron Popeski)
KEEP IN MIND EGYPT IS NOW UNDER CONTROL OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD!
Hamas complains to Egypt after Israeli army kills Gazan
 |
| A Palestinian youth (C) waves a flag in front of Israeli soldiers during a
demonstration in the West Bank village of al-Masara near Bethlehem, marking the
recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state by the United Nations November 30,
2012. The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on November 29 overwhelmingly
approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine after
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the world body to issue its long
overdue ''birth certificate.''
Credit: Reuters/Ammar Awad
(Reuters) - Hamas accused Israel on Saturday of violating the shaky,
Egyptian-brokered Gaza truce of November 21 after Israeli troops killed a
Palestinian taking part in a protest at the enclave's border
fence.
Medical officials said the 21-year-old man had been among six Palestinians
wounded by gunfire during Friday's demonstration near southern Rafah, and had
later died in hospital.
The Israeli military said the Palestinians had tried to vandalize the
fortified fence and that soldiers shot at their legs after first trying to warn
them away.
The Gaza Strip's Hamas government described the incident, as well as the
Israeli navy's seizure of nine Palestinian fisherman on Wednesday, as violations
of a ceasefire mediated by Cairo to end a surge of cross-border fighting this
month.
"We have discussed this with Egyptian officials, so they guarantee a
cessation to those violations," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Increased Palestinian access to the Gaza fence and to fishing waters heavily
patrolled by Israel were among conditions lodged by Hamas and other armed
factions in the Cairo talks.
Israel said it was willing to ease its military clampdown on the territory if
the Palestinians did not pose a threat.
Since 2009, the Israelis had enforced a 300-metre-deep no-go zone on the
Palestinian side of the border, saying this kept away gunmen and would-be
infiltrators. It had also denied Palestinians the means of working swathes of
farmland.
The army suspended zone enforcement after the November 21 truce, but killed
another Palestinian in a similar fence protest two days later. Hamas, while
condemning Israel, deployed police to evacuate other demonstrations.
Abu Zuhri's remarks did not indicate that the Islamist movement, which
remains hostile to the Jewish state, wanted to abandon the ceasefire. The eight
days of fighting this month killed 166 Palestinians, while Gazan rocket fire
killed six Israelis.
A smaller Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, was more threatening than Hamas,
saying in a statement that "continued and so flagrant (Israeli) violations would
put the calm at risk and push resistance factions to respond in a way they deem
suitable".
|
Remember keep your eye on Damascus...Damascus being totally destroyed is prophetic....Key to the GOG/MAGOG war in the Bible!
Syrian jets bomb rebels in Damascus
 |
| A woman carrying a child walks past a damaged bus in Aleppo's Bustan al-Basha
district November 29, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Zain Karam
(Reuters) - Syrian jets bombed rebel-held areas of Damascus on Saturday,
residents said, and a countrywide Internet blackout entered its third
day.
Syrian rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad clashed with troops
in most populated areas of the country, according to opposition activists. At
least 40,000 people have been killed during the 20-month-old uprising, they
say.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked monitor, said
war planes were bombing the Damascus suburbs of Kafar Souseh and
Darraya.
If rebels maintain a presence in these areas, they will hold ground in a
continuous arc from the northeast to southwest of the capital's outer
districts.
"Syrian regular forces are trying to control the areas surrounding the
capital and clashed with rebel fighters," the Observatory said.
The mostly Sunni Muslim rebels battling Assad, who is from Syria's Alawite
minority linked to Shi'ite Islam, have been making gains across Syria by overrunning military
bases and have been ramping up attacks on Damascus, his seat of power.
Since Thursday, clashes have been reported near the Aqraba and Babilla
districts on the southeastern outskirts of Damascus which lead to the
international airport, effectively closing the road and leading EgyptAir and
Emirates to suspend flights.
Syrian state television quoted a ministry of information statement saying the
Damascus international airport was open on Saturday and that the road leading to
it was safe. Opposition activists said clashes continued.
Networking experts accuse the government of cutting off the Internet but
Damascus blames "terrorists," a term it uses for the opposition.
Rights groups have warned the communications drop off is a precursor to a
wider offensive by government forces in the capital. Syrian security sources and
diplomats say the government intends to block central Damascus from the restive
suburbs.
Rebels and activists said on Saturday there have been multiple communications
problems since the uprising began.
Abu Yazen, an activist from the central city of Homs, said rebel units had
been using satellite phones, radios and Skype to coordinate with each
other.
"There is no Internet or phone service in Syria but it has not affected our
work too much," he told Reuters over Skype.
Activists reported clashes and aerial strikes in the provinces of Homs, Deir
al-Zor, Idlib and in Aleppo where they said 14 rebels fighters were killed
during an assault on an army base in the town of Khanasser early on
Saturday.
|
I posted the information under the article of what the (NPT) is....Iran threatens to quit NPT if attacked
Iran threatens to quit NPT if attacked
DEBKAfile December 1, 2012, 1:34 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile December 1, 2012, 1:34 PM (GMT+02:00)
Any attack on Iran's nuclear facilities may lead to it withdrawing from the
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a pact aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear
arms, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy
Agency, said Friday. He also suggested Iran could kick out IAEA inspectors and
install its uranium enrichment centrifuges in "more secure" places. Asked about
Soltanieh's comments, Israel's ambassador to the IAEA, Ehud Azoulay, said: "I
believe that they are going to do it anyhow, in the near future, so I'm not
surprised.
"When they make their first nuclear explosion they will have to withdraw, I
believe," he told reporters, adding he thought Iran was "following the steps" of
North Korea.
________________________________
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Participation in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
| |||
| Signed | 1 July 1968 | ||
| Location | New York, United States | ||
| Effective | 5 March 1970 | ||
| Condition | Ratification by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and 40 other signatory states. | ||
| Parties | 189 (complete list) non-parties: India, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan | ||
| Depositary | Governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics | ||
| Languages | English, Russian, French, Spanish and Chinese | ||
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.[1]
Opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty entered into force in 1970. On 11 May 1995, the Treaty was extended indefinitely. A total of 190 parties have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon states: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China (also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council). More countries have ratified the NPT than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement, a testament to the Treaty's significance.[1]
Four non-parties to the treaty are known or believed to possess nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan and North Korea have openly tested and declared that they possess nuclear weapons, while Israel has had a policy of opacity regarding its own nuclear weapons program. North Korea acceded to the treaty in 1985, but never came into compliance, and announced its withdrawal in 2003.
The NPT consists of a preamble and eleven articles. Although the concept of "pillars" is not expressed anywhere in the NPT, the treaty is nevertheless sometimes interpreted as a three-pillar system, with an implicit balance among them:
The NPT is often seen to be based on a central bargain: “the NPT non-nuclear-weapon states agree never to acquire nuclear weapons and the NPT nuclear-weapon states in exchange agree to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology and to pursue nuclear disarmament aimed at the ultimate elimination of their nuclear arsenals”.[3] The treaty is reviewed every five years in meetings called Review Conferences of the Parties to the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Even though the treaty was originally conceived with a limited duration of 25 years, the signing parties decided, by consensus, to extend the treaty indefinitely and without conditions during the Review Conference in New York City on May 11, 1995.
At the time the NPT was proposed, there were predictions of 25-30 nuclear weapon states within 20 years. Instead, over forty years later, only four states are not parties to the NPT, and they are the only additional states believed to possess nuclear weapons.[3] Several additional measures have been adopted to strengthen the NPT and the broader nuclear nonproliferation regime and make it difficult for states to acquire the capability to produce nuclear weapons, including the export controls of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the enhanced verification measures of the IAEA Additional Protocol.
Critics argue that the NPT cannot stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons or the motivation to acquire them. They express disappointment with the limited progress on nuclear disarmament, where the five authorized nuclear weapons states still have 22,000 warheads in their combined stockpile and have shown a reluctance to disarm further.[dubious ] Several high-ranking officials within the United Nations have said that they can do little to stop states using nuclear reactors to produce nuclear weapons.
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